233.285. Law not to affect road districts incorporated prior to effective date.

MISSOURI STATUTES AND CODES

233.285. Law not to affect road districts incorporated prior to effective date.

Law not to affect road districts incorporated prior toeffective date.

233.285. The repealing of the sections and law repealed bythis law shall not have the effect of abating, nullifying,suspending or vitiating any public road district incorporated, orestablished by preliminary order, prior to the taking effect ofthis law or any proceedings by any such public road district; butany public road district finally incorporated, or establishedonly by preliminary order, prior to the taking effect of thislaw, except districts established only by preliminary order inwhich there has been held a meeting of landowners of thedistrict, in compliance with laws repealed by this law, at whichowners of a majority of the acres of land in the district failedto vote in favor of the improvement of any road or roads proposedto be improved, shall, from and after the taking effect of thislaw, by the name mentioned in the preliminary order of the countycommission establishing it, be a political subdivision of thestate for governmental purposes with all the powers mentioned insections 233.170 to 233.315 and such others as may from time totime be given by law, and shall, after the taking effect ofsections 233.170 to 233.315, proceed, and shall have andexercise, and the commissioners and landowners and voters thereofshall have and exercise, the same privileges, powers and dutiesas if such district was incorporated after the taking effect ofsections 233.170 to 233.315 and under and in accordance withsections 233.170 to 233.315; except that valid contracts made orentered into before the taking effect of sections 233.170 to233.315, under laws hereby repealed, shall be complied with thesame as if such laws were still in force; and except that anysuch district in which there has been a meeting of landowners ofthe district, in compliance with laws repealed by sections233.170 to 233.315, at which owners of a majority of the acres ofland in the district voted that any road or roads therein beimproved and the cost thereof charged against the lands in thedistrict, may proceed, and the commissioners thereof may proceedin making such improvement, and tax bills, or bonds may be issuedand collected on account of such improvement, in the same manneras if the laws repealed by sections 233.170 to 233.315 were stillin force and effect and sections 233.170 to 233.315 not yet ineffect; but in case no contract for such improvement has beenentered into, or tax bills or bonds issued by reason of such votefor such improvement, such district, and the commissioners andlandowners thereof may, in making such improvement or issuing taxbills or bonds on account thereof, proceed as if such districthad not been incorporated until after the taking effect ofsections 233.170 to 233.315, and was incorporated under and incompliance with sections 233.170 to 233.315; or said special roaddistrict commissioners may file with the clerk of the countycommission the tabulated statement or statements of the lands inthe district as prepared previous to such meeting, and, if theyhave not done so already, make out and file with the clerk of thecounty commission a report of the action of the landowners atsuch meeting, signed and acknowledged by them, and the clerk ofthe county commission, after such report and tabulated statementare so filed, shall give notice, by at least two publications insome weekly newspaper published in the county, that said specialroad district commissioners have filed with him a report of anelection in such district, and a tabulated statement of the landsin the district, showing the valuations fixed by them on eachtract thereof for the purposes of an assessment for roadimprovement voted upon at such meeting, and such notice shallstate a day not less than two weeks later than the date of thefirst publication of such notice, upon which the countycommission will be in session and will hear and considerexceptions and objections to such report and tabulated statementand to the valuations so fixed on any or all tracts of land inthe district, and the county commission shall, upon said day oras soon thereafter as the business of the county commission willpermit, hear and consider any objections or exceptions that maybe made to such report, and at such hearing such report shall beprima facie evidence of the statements therein made, and thecounty commission, if no objections or exceptions are made tosuch report, or if it find, after considering and hearing anyobjections that may be so made, and any evidence that may beoffered, that such special road district commissioners prior tosuch meeting, and at such meeting, proceeded in compliance withthe law then in force, and called such meeting and gave noticethereof in compliance with the law then in force, and that theaction of the landowners at such meeting was as stated in suchreport, the county commission shall hear and consider suchobjections and exceptions as may be made to such tabulatedstatement or to valuations fixed on lands in the district as insuch tabulated statement indicated, and, after hearing andconsidering such objections and exceptions, and such evidence asmay be offered, shall make any alterations and corrections ofsaid tabulated statement, and of the valuations so fixed andindicated, or fix such valuations on any of such lands, as it maydeem proper, and shall thereupon approve such tabulatedstatement, and the valuations indicated therein, and order theclerk of the county commission to annex to said tabulatedstatement a certificate of such approval, and thereafter suchdistrict, and the special road district commissioners thereof,and the clerk of the county commission, in making suchimprovement and contracting for the same, or in issuing tax billsto pay for the same, or issuing bonds or tax bills to pay suchbonds, may proceed as if this law had not taken effect, and thelaws hereby repealed still in effect, except that the specialroad district commissioners need not make out and certify to thecounty clerk a description of the lands in the district asrequired by laws hereby repealed, and the county clerk inapportioning against each tract of land in the district its shareof the cost of the improvement or its share of the principal andinterest on the bonds, shall use, for the purpose of making suchapportionment, such tabulated statement as so approved by thecommission.